The Walking Dead, Season 1: Days Gone Bye
by Transformers g1's-Prime
Summary: The world as we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months, society has crumbled: In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living. (Rated M)
1. EPISODE ONE: A New Day

The Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone Bye...

Prologue: A New Day

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><p>Hell.<p>

That's how one should describe the small town of Macon, Georgia at its current state of this moment qith multiple cars overturned on their sides or backs, powerlines fallen on the ground with sparks of electricity coming out and newspaper spread out all over the streets.

But the most disturbing thing about Macon was the number of dead, rotten corpses on the ground. Some lied with bullets in their brains, heads chopped off and even ripped in half. But there was a secret about these corpses.

Suddenly, an alarm rang out from a small pharmacy called **'Everett Pharmacy Drugstore'**, whether it was a break-in or some kind of plea from help was unknown, but one thing was certain... it woke them up.

The corpse of a dead woman lying in an alleyway with an icepick in her shoulders and remained motionless before her eyes opened. But they weren't any normal eyes of the human, no, they were a pure milky-white.

The monster managed to crawl up and began to limp towards the origin of the noise. Walking into the streets of Macon, she turned her head to look at the broken window with bloody handprints on it, trailing down until it couldn't be seen anymore.

It then continued on till it reached the pharmacy, only to see dozens of her brethren limping towards the pharmacy and began pounding on the doors and windows all for one objective... to feed the juicy taste of human flesh.

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><p>Inside the store, survivors were all huddled into one room and all froze when the alarm went off.<p>

A slightly overweight man in a green shirt, khaki shorts, and open-toed sandals instantly checked the door and paled in horror.

"Guys! They're coming!" he yelled out and then all hell broke loose. The monsters then started to pound on the doors and the windows, as the residents inside scramble to defuse the situation.

A mother helped her son off the counter he was sitting and tried to get him out of the room, as another woman got out her gun and started to put a new clip inside the gun. A man with a mustache started to run towards the door, "I'm gonna get the truck pulled up 'round back!" he yelled to a woman next to his side.

"Do it fast, I've got to get my dad out of here.".

"I don't plan on dilly-dallying." came the man's reply, "Honey, take Duck into the office and barricade the living hell out of the door behind me." he turned to a small Asian man, "Glenn, when you hear me honking in the alley, start getting people out of here."

The man known as Glenn nodded, "You got it!".

He then turned to an African-American helping a little girl on the counter, "Lee, try to board up the windows and buy us some time, and Carley," he turned to a small woman, "Help Doug and shoot anything that gets too close inside.".

They both nodded and headed off to do their ordered jobs. Carley and Glenn ran towards the door to help Doug, while Lee searches for supplies in the hardware section.

_Come on, I know they're here somewhere,_ he thought franctically, before his face brightened at the sight of some boards and nails. He then picked them up and ran toward the nearest window that was swarmed by monsters and instantly began hammering the nails onto the boards, trying to buy some time.

However, it was all for naught, as one of the creatures broke through and got stuck in between the windows and tried to reach for Lee.

He stumbled back and instantly turn the hammer around and imbedded the claw into the monster's head. Unfortunately, it resulted in the hammer getting stuck inside its head and Lee couldn't pull it out.

_Goddammit, _he cursed in his thoughts before he saw Glenn rush off for some reason and saw that the door was slowly beginning to open and rushed over and reinforced the pressure on the door.

It was chaos throughout the store, but little did anybody know was that this was **A New Day** for them.

It was a new day for all of mankind becausethese creatures that was trying to devour them and all of humanity were... **the Walking Dead. **

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><p><em>*Que The Walking Dead Theme*<em>

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><p><em>What a day, <em>he thought.

He sits, shoulders down, head staring at the cuffs wrapped around his wrists, slumped in defeat. The trial had weighed on him like he never thought it would. The long, agnos ing weeks before they finally accused him of what he knew what he'd done.

Lee Everett isn't a bad man, but he'd done a bad thing. He knows that he deserves to be in the backseat of a Geogia Police car heading towards the West Central Prison a few miles away from Atlanta in the surronding countryside.

He lifted his head to stare through the windshield. The highway stretches long ahead yet, and he knew this was the longest trip of his life, and feel like the last.

His eyes drift up to the rear-vision mirror to stare at his expression, but the cop in driver's seat happens to look in the mirror at the same moment. The cop locks his eyes with Lee and Lee puts on a hard expression.

The two stare at one another for a short while before Lee turns away.

The cop's eyes seemed to focus on Lee's face in the mirror, studying the lines and contours. The tired, anguished eyes and hardened demeanor. He feels the air of regret and sadness around the man behind him.

"Well, I reckon' you didin't do it, then," The cop says, returning his attention to the road.

Lee keeps his head turned away, surprised and even vaguely frustrated at the cop in front of him.

"Does it really matter?" he asked in a deep, baritone voice, his tone borderline sarcastic.

"Nah, not much.".

Lee looks up at the mirror briefly once more, having nothing more to say.

"Y'Know, I've driven a bunch 'a fellas down to this prison," The cop continues, "Lord knows how many. Usually is 'bout now I get the 'I didn't do it.'".

Lee shakes his head, "Not from me.".

"Cause guys in your positions already said it enough?".

Lee has no response to that. The cop's thought process is logical, but he can think up whatever logical explanation he likes. Lee knows the truth, as everybody else thinks they do, too.

He stares out the windshield at the highway stretching ahead and there is a short moment of silence before the car's radio pipes up.

_"We've got what looks like a 10-91E near Peachtree Exit of 285. All cars asked to keep on the lookout for a 91V in the area."._

Lee didn't have a clue of what that police chatter was about, but the cop didn't seem worried. There was another momentary silence before the cop glances into the rear vision mirror once more and continues.

"I followed your case a little bit, you being a Macon boy and all.".

"You're from Macon, then," Lee observes.

"Yep. Came up to Atlanta ot be a cop in the seventies. Always wanted to work a murder case, like that senatorial case you got yourself mixed up with, with all due respect.".

The quiet conversation is interrupted by the sound of an approaching siren, but the cop ignores it, being used to such sounds, and keeps talking.

"A real shame, that is."

Lee wasn't listening, however, as he turns his head towards the side window to watch another car come screaming past - lights flashing and sirens wailing - on the other side of the highway.

Lee wonders briefly about where it could be going in such a hurry, but his thoughts are soon interrupted by the driver's continued speaking, and he turns his head back to the front.

"Hell, the whole family used to be regulars at your folks' drugstore right in downtown. Still there?".

The corner of Lee's mouth curved up into a small, proud smile as he remembered his parents and their drugstore is still in buisness even after the incident with the senator.

"Sure is.".

"Good.".

Lee starts to think about his family for a moment - regretful, but also hopeful - before he is inevitably disturbed by the radio's constant chattering.

_"Be advised of medical personnel on the route to Hardsfield. Various 10's and 20's coming in."._

Again, the cop ignores the radio.

"I got a nephew up in UGA. You teach there long?" the cop asked Lee through his mirror.

"Going on to my sixth year," Lee replies, wondering if he knew the officer's nephew.

"You meet your wife in Athens?".

The question pulls Lee up short, and he looks down from the mirror before turning to the window. Not feeling obliged, nor prepared to discuss the subject.

As Lee tried to focus on the passing scenery to distract himself, the cop persists, much to Lee's vague annoyance.

"You want to know how I see it?".

As Lee thinks of how to reply, he sees four more police crusiers and a SWAT van speeding past with their lights and sirens going. While Lee racks his brain for reasons why, he mutters an evasive answer to the driver's question, hoping to drop the subject.

"Not really.".

"Well, too bad." the cop continues, to his growing annoyance, "It's my car. You have the right to remain silent, but it don't mean I gotta be.".

_Of course,_ Lee thinks. His frustration growing with the man, as he gave the cop a steely gaze just in time for the cop to open his mouth and then close it. He looks away and seems to rethink what he says.

This pisses Lee off slightly and his face takes on a slight angry visage as he glared at the mirror. _'Or she married the wrong man,' _he thought to himself. He wanted to say this, but couldn't, and merely grumbled in discontent.

_"Riot in progress. All available units for incoming 217's. Rolling calls and dispatches to all locations."._

"Any of that seem important to you?" Lee asked, trying to change the subject.

As he says that, a helicopter flies overhead, quite low over the roof of the car, before 4 more police cruisers and two more SWAT vans follow it. He thinks there must be something big happening back down the way that they came from, what with all the mayhem on the road, not to mention that the radio won't learn to shut the fuck up.

"All of it, but that box never shuts up. Sit in this seat and pay too much attention and you'll drive yourself crazy." the officer grumbled, shaking his head if he had a bad headache.

_You don't say,_ Lee thought to himself. At least they had one thing to both agree on.

The cop pauses for a moment, before adding. "You'll have to learn to stop worrying about things that you can't control.".

There's another moment of quiet as the sirens fade, before the cop continues on his earlier tangent.

"I'm driving this man once, h-he was the worst one," he says, "He wouldn't stop going on about he didn't do it. He was an older fella. Big, soft eyes hidden by a pair of smart folks glasses, and he's just wailing back there, says it wasn't him. Cryin' and snottin' all over, right where you're sittin'." He gestures to the backseat with his thumb.

The radio continued its chatter _"All officers are available for incoming 217's-" _before the cop finally grew tired of the radio's continuing its chatter and shut it off altogether so he can continue talking uninterrupted. Lee doesn't think that this was a good idea, but he won't be the one to tell the cop his business.

"And before long he starts kicking the back of the seat, li-like a fussy baby on an airplane. And I tell him he's gotta stop, that that's government property, and I'll be forced to zap him otherwise. So he stops, and havin' exhausted all options, he starts cryin' for his mama, 'Mama, it's all a big mistake! It wasn't me!'".

Lee listens and watches the cop's animated face in the mirror, expecting him to continue. When he doesn't, Lee's curiosity gets the better of him,

"So, did he do it?".

The cop glances at the mirror again, a look of anger on his face. "They caught the fucker red-headed! Stabbin' his wife, cuttin' her up just as the boys came through the door! He sits in _my _car screamin' bloody murder that it wasn't him! I think he actually believe it himself." The cop shakes his head and huffs a sigh. "It goes to show, people will up and go mad once when they believe their life is over.".

Lee thinks this is a pretty accurate assessment of the story he just heard. In fact, most of what this cop has said seems pretty spot-on to him. Such wisdom could only come with age and experience. It seems to Lee like this cop has seen more than enough of the world.

"Oh, I got another good one for ya," He continues on, turning his head towards the backseat. "This one's a little bit less depressing and a bit more hilarious if I do say so myself...".

Lee blocks out the cop's as he stares out the windshield. For, not far ahead, he think he sees a figure, maybe a person standing in the middle of the road. As the car rapidly approaches the figure, Lee is able to focus on it and finds that it is, in fact, someone. His eyes widen in shock and horror, than realized that the cop wasn't paying attention to the road.

"WATCH OUT!" he shouted, hoping for the cop to see the pedestrian.

But the cop does not return his attention to the road, oblivious to the danger, and they hit the person as they wandered into the middle of the car's path. The person's head makes contact with the windshield, dark blood splattering everywhere and the car spills out of control, crashing straight through the barrier on the side of the road, and rolling end-over-end, side-over-side down the hill. Lee sees nothing but shattering glass and twisting metal and the shrubbery flashing by the windows as he's thrusted against the dividing wall, the doors, the floor, the roof, again and again before finally coming to a stop at the bottom of the hill.

_What a day,_ were his final thoughts before he passed out and darkness took over his vision.


	2. Out of the Frying Pan

The Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone Bye...

Chapter 1: Out of the Frying Pan

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><p>Lee went in and out of consciousness. There was a sharp yell and loud moaning and groaning that seemed to be muffled as if he was underwater. Though they were muffled, Lee could make the sounds out as gunshots fired possibly from the police officer. He heard more frantic shouting and saw standing on the hill, slowly limping, was a person but it was too blurry to make it out as a man or woman. Finally, he blacked out once again.<p>

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><p>Lee finally opened his eyes, albeit weakly, and saw that the figure was gone and the sky seemed to be setting in sunset. He groaned, "Ugh...Oww... shit." he cursed, when he moved his leg and found that it was a bloody mess. He leaned up and saw that his handcuffs were still on even after the car crashed into... whatever that thing was.<p>

"...Thirsty." he voiced his thought for something to drink out loud, while trying to remove the cuffs, but to no avail.

He tried to move his leg again, only to have another sharp pang of pain suddenly shoot through the leg. "Fuck, my leg." Lee said, looking at the bloody leg. He glanced to his right to see a shattered glass window and have his eyes widen in shock.

There lying on the ground, a few feet from him and a trail of blood leading to him, was the cop... who was now dead. "Hey! Hey officer! Are you all right?! I'm still cuffed back here!" Lee called out, though he hoped that it wasn't real, the cop didn't respond and that's when Lee knew that this was real and the officer was dead.

He then looked down and noticed, to his surprise, that the officer's shotgun was lying on the ground. _'__Why the hell did he have his gun out?' _he thought to himself, before he shook his head, he needed to get out first and then find out and hopefully find out about what happened to the man.

He looked around, before spotting the window above him and slowly lifted his good leg and kicked the window once. It cracked, but didn't break. He tried again, it cracked more, but still didn't break. He tried a third time, same as before. But on the fourth kick, he finally broke the window.

_'I need to... drag myself... out that window.'_ Lee thought weakly, but determinedly, as he slowly crawls up the backseat of the car and grabs the sides of the small window and slowly pulls himself out the window, hoping to land softly on the ground.

Unfortunately, it didn't go so well, as when he slid from the side door and crashed onto the hard, rocky ground and made him grunt in pain. He panted a little bit, before stood up and looked at the hill and noticed that the car had fell from quite a distance. He knew that he wouldn't be able to climb up the hill in his current condition.

He leaned against the car on his bad leg and screamed in pain and agony, as he held himself against the door and glanced at the dead officer's body. He then slowly began to limp off the car and came to a stop in front of the shotgun. _'The officer's shotgun is over there.' _he thought, as he leaned over, despite his bad leg, and managed to grab it and began to inspect it.

_'Looks empty.' _he put the shotgun back down on the ground and began to stand up. _'It'll be easier to carry with these cuffs off.' _Lee decided that it would be best to carry without being cuffed. Lee saw out of the corner of his eye a lone shotgun shell close by. He started to limp his way towards it and slowly bent down. He picked it up and looked at it for a moment before shrugging, picking it up and put it in his pocket.

_'Could come useful later.' _his line of thinking was, as he made his way towards the fallen officer. "Officer?" Lee called out, hoping that the officer would respond. He walked forward and took a whiff of the air and immediately flinched at the bad smell. _'Goddamn...'._

As Lee stood over the dead body, he noticed the keys to the handcuffs... on the officer's back pocket of his pants. _'These have to be the keys to the handcuffs.' _he kept reminding himself, as he reached over and grabbed the keys. Unfortunately, back in his old life, he wasn't known for being so good with his hands, so he dropped them and they landed... right in front of the dead officer's face.

"Shit!" he quietly cursed, as he bent over to reach for the keys, when he suddenly hesitated, as if the cop was going to wake up and order him to lean against the car, but he didn't and Lee made a quick grab for the keys and stood up with them. First, he took the key and unlocked the cuff that was on his right, letting it fall and dangle around. Next, he put the key in his right hand and unlocked the left one, finally letting the cuffs fall to the ground and finally be free of his restraints.

He rubbed his left wrist trying to ease the slight pain, after being cuffed, when he suddenly froze when heard a moan coming from the police officer. He gulped slightly and saw the officer's left hand twitching slightly. "Uh, officer?..." Lee whispered, rather afraid of the sudden change of the officer, who he presumed was dead.

Suddenly, the moaning stopped and for a second, Lee thought the officer had died, when all of a sudden, the officer jumped up and attacked Lee, knocking him over. "Ahh!" he yelled, getting a good look at the officer now. His skin had became a rotten green and his eyes had became a pure milky-white, the... _creature _began to snarl sickeningly and started to crawl towards Lee.

"Holy shit! What in the hell?!" Lee was terrified, he quickly backed away from the _creature, _"What the fuck are you?!" he half questioned, half screamed at the dead man who was crawling towards him and ready to devour his body. He kept backing away from the _thing _until his back collided with the side of the police car.

He looked around frantically, hoping to find something to use against the snarling creature, when he noticed the shotgun that he left on the ground at the same position he left it in. He grabbed it and pulled it to his body in a micro-second, holding it to his chest before positioning it into his left arm, as he frantically searched for the shell he had found.

He tried to put the shell into the shotgun, but, due to the stress of the moment, it slipped from his fingers and hit the ground and made Lee curse out-loud. "SHIT!" he reached for the shell with no time left to lose. He popped it into the shotgun and took aim at the rotting officer who was still crawling towards the would-have been convict.

"Don't make me do this!..." he begged, hoping that some small ounce of humanity still existed in the monster's brain, however, due to it getting to close for his comfort, Lee realized that it wasn't going to stop until it killed him... or he killed _it_.

After a brief moment of hesitation and a quick flashback of a bad memory that involved the screams of a woman, Lee put his finger on the trigger and fired the gun at the man, blowing a good chunk of his head off. The body hit the ground, as its left arm reached out for Lee and he thought for a terrified second, it would lunge at him again, before the arm fell onto the ground with no traces of whatever life had brought the abomination of hell back to life.

Lee released a breath that he didn't know that he was holding in and glanced at the shotgun in his hands. At that exact moment, his brain seemed to register what he had just done and his expression took on one of horror and disgust, as he stared at it before he threw it away somewhere into the distance and tried to clear his brain of the act that had just transpired.

It was self-defense, he kept telling himself, it wasn't like last time, it wasn't a mistake... but no matter how many times he tried to tell himself, the ringing of the gunshot still rang in his ears like a haunting echo.

"...man" he takes a deep breath and breaths out, as he stared at the cop's dead body, trying his best not to smell the disgusting smell of rotting flesh that somehow grew worse after he was dead.

"His skin is rotten... and he smells like shit. What the hell is this?" Lee muttered, observing the corpse that had now started to attract flies. "Is he dead? HEY! ARE YOU DEAD?!" Lee whispered, before he yelled out, hoping that the thing wouldn't pop back up and rip out his throat. Thankfully he didn't.

He exhaled deeply and looked around at his surrondings. He was stuck at the bottom of a hill with a broken leg and a headless corpse at his legs and with his problem of being a convicted killer wouldn't help gain some sympathy from anybody nearby who knew who he was.

So, to put things simply, he was royally fucked.

Lee was about to get back up, when he noticed something in the distance, his first thought was that it was just a deer or some kind of small animal, but when the setting sun's rays began to shine through the forest, the shadow dimmed down a little and he could make out who, or rather what, the figure was.

A little girl, Lee realized with a quiet gasp. This was it, he hoped she had parents to call some paramedics or something to treat his aching leg.

"HELP!" he called out to her, "GO GET SOMEBODY! THERE'S-THERE'S BEEN A SHOOTING!" he watched the little girl run off, leaving him alone in the eerily serene woods.

He then froze, when he heard a twig snapped from behind him. He glanced frantically to his right to see nothing there, but when he turned to the left, he froze and paled in fear of what had just emerged.

More of the undead monsters, the same kind as the cop was. The first one started to limp towards Lee, before it tripped and fell on a boulder. The other one missed it and began to circle around the tree.

Lee, knowing the kind of danger that he was in, painfully stood up, grasping his leg. He then started to limp away, before he tripped on the dead officer's head remains. He fell to the ground and quickly got back up and started to limp away, just in time before the monsters could reach him.

He began limping fastly, franctically looking over his head to see where they were or how many had shown up, before turning to his right and saw more creatures stumble out of the woods. His eyes widen, when he heard a growl and looked down to see a zombie not to far away from him impaled on a tree branch, its pale arms trying to reach out for a meal.

He then, unfortunately, tripped over a lone branch sticking out of the ground with more zombies closing in from behind him, snarling and black blood dripping from their mouths, ready to sink their rotten teeth into Lee's dark flesh. Shaking his head from dizziness, Lee began to crawl up a small slope and began to fear that he would die, when **suddenly,** he saw a small flash of hope.

A wooden fence and whenever there are fences, there were people behind them.

His determination returning, he managed to stand up and began to limp towards the fence, not before he took a sharp glance back and saw the zombies coming closer to his position. He saw a lone monster stumble out of the woods, but he was more focused on the gate and the group from behind him. He reached the gate and made a grab for the top and began to pull himself up. The zombies were just a few centimeters from him, and through some stroke of luck, he managed to hop over to the other side and landed on the ground with a loud 'THUD'.

Shaking his head, Lee began back away from the fence as fast as he could, which was a good thing, because not a few seconds later, they began to pound on the wooden gate. He came to a stop, when his back hit the wooden porch from behind him. He then saw one rotten hand began to reach up and grab the top of the fence and Lee began to fear that this was the end, when suddenly, the sounds of gunshots rang through the area.

His eyes narrow in confusion, was it the local police or some random man helping somebody. Whatever it was, it seemed to catch the attention of the zombies, as they turned their heads to the sound of the noise and seeing how the fence wouldn't hold, they decided to go and get a new meal, hopefully one tastier than the one that got away.

Lee began to pull himself up with the help of the porch behind him and let out a breath that he didn't even know that he was holding. Closing his eyes in relief, he thanked God that he managed to get away from the monsters.

Pushing himself off the porch, he began to survey his area that seemed eerily quiet and deserted. Limping forward a few steps, he began to call out for someone to answer him. "Hello? Anybody." no one replied, only the echo of his voice was all he heard.

He took a glance over his shoulder and his eyes widen in disbelief, when he saw the dark columns of smoke began to rise from the neighborhood and the city of Atlanta. "What the hell is going on here?" he whispered in horror, this was like something out of some apocalyptic world in the comics he used to read as a kid.

Though what Lee Everett didn't know was that he was stepping **Out of the Frying Pan**... and was now stepping into the fire.


	3. Adventures in Babysitting

The Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone Bye...

Chapter 2: Adventures in Babysitting

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><p>"Hello? Anybody." his voice rang out through the entire neighborhood, and possibly the entire city of Atlanta, but no one heard his plea for help. He exhaled loudly, as he took the time to survey the surroundings in his area, hoping to find something of use before he went inside the house behind him.<p>

He limped over to the treehouse and stopped a few inches from the base of the tree. He looked down to see a small pink tea-set, the type that a little girl would use to play with her dolls or friends. However, Lee's thoughts were on another subject.

_'I'd fill those tea cups with some bourbon if I could.'_ he smiled as he pictured a good old-fashioned Bourbon whiskey on the rocks in his hands after a long hard day of teaching students and dealing with paperwork. He then focused his attention onto the treehouse that hovered over his head.

_'No ladder... I'm not getting up there anyway, this leg the way it is.'_ Lee rationalized the situation, staring at his bloody leg that looks swollen and could become infected if not treated soon enough. It was then that he swore that he heard a small scampering in the treehouse above him.

He stared up at the treehouse with narrow eyes. Maybe something, or rather someone, was in there? He just prayed to God that one of those _things _would leap out of there and rip out his throat.

"Anybody up there?" he called out to whatever was inside the treehouse, to which nothing of a response came, not even a growl. "HELP! Hello? Anybody in there?" once again, his response was met by nothing but silence.

"I thought I saw a little girl in the forest..." he murmured to himself, mostly. "Are you up there? I'm not one of those things." Lee added, hoping that he could calm down the girl down, if she was in there. After a few seconds, he shrugged his shoulders. "I guess it's empty.".

After seeing that there was nothing of importance in the yard, he proceeded to head towards the house, but when he stepped into the front of the driveway, he tried to call out one last time. "Somebody? YELL IF YOU CAN HEAR ME!" there was nothing but the sound of the wind as the only noise in the area.

_'This entire neighborhood is deserted... what the hell?' _he thought, a cold chill beginning to crawl up his spine. It was starting to be like those apocalypse movies that he saw as a teen had just happened.

He made his way up the porch's steps and walked toward the sliding glass made out of glass. He looked inside to see if anyone was inside, but it was too dark to see even with the sun's setting rays providing a bright orange hue through the kitchen windows.

Lee began to pound on the windows with his fists. "Hello? Anybody home? I need a little help." he called out, hoping that someone would rush to the door and pull him inside to the safety of the two-story house.

"Hellooo." he tried one last time, dragging out the o in the word. "There's something going on." he muttered in confusion and concern of the current state of not only this place, but of the city and possibly the entire country.

He then grasped the wooden handle and slowly began to pull on it and was surprise to see it budge open slowly. Then he put all of his strength into it and opened the glass door, allowing more of the sun's rays to brighten the living room.

"Coming in. Don't shoot, ok?" he announced nervously. Taking one last glance outside, Lee steeled his nerve and proceeded inside into the house, ready to face whatever horrors there was to come.

Little did he know, this would change his life as he knew it... forever.

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><p>Shutting the sliding door behind him to prevent anyone from coming in, Lee proceeded to move further into the house, when suddenly, a sharp pain entered his leg and forced him to bend over and grasp it with pain flowing through his system.<p>

"Ahh, shit." he cursed, standing up and regaining his composure. "Hello? I'm not an intruder... or one of THEM." Lee called out to whoever was in the house, putting more force on the word "them".

He took one step forward and froze in horror, when he saw the conditions of the living room/kitchen. Furniture was over turned, the TV had a dark blue color on its screen, signaling that it's unconnected or something happened to the airwaves. But the thing that stood out most was the blood splattered on the wall with what looks like hands trailing down it with blood.

"These people may need more help than I do." he whispered in horror. He looked to his right and spotted a coloring book with crayons on one of its blank pages. Apparently, whoever was coloring had just gotten halfway done. His eyes narrow, maybe this was the little girl that he saw in the woods house?

He then looked to the left and spotted a bowl of fruit. Instantly, his stomach roared with hunger and he instantly went over to the side and reached down to pick one of the fruit... only to find it stuck and feel that it was plastic-like.

"It's fake, damn." he growled in annoyance. Why the hell would people even make these things if all it's gonna do to him is make him even more hungry. Maybe there was something in the kitchen. He turned on his heel and proceeded to the kitchen, eyeing the large blob of blood on the wall.

However, what he didn't see was the blood trail underneath his feet, as he slipped and fell onto the floor beneath him. He landed, unfortunately, in the blood trail and coated his clothes with more blood than before. Eyeing his hands with horror, he wiped the blood on his pants leg and proceeded to walk into the kitchen for a snack or some kind of information of what was going on here.

He went over to the sink and spotted a glass of water, thank god! He reached forward and grabbed it, it still had some water inside of it. He raised it to his lips and gulped the entire glass in a slightly greedy manner, but hey, he was thirsty and no one else seemed to be around.

After finishing the drink and wiping his mouth, he proceeded to check the drawers and cabinets. So far, he found nothing and slowly began to think that everything in the house must be cleared out, but on the second drawer that all changed.

Inside the drawer was a small black block with a small antennae on its top. A walkie-talkie, he realized reaching inside the drawer and pulling it out of the drawer. He put it to his ear to see if it was on, but it wasn't, not even a small hint of static.

Putting the walkie-talkie in his pocket, he continued to check the other cabinets with the results the same as before. Boxes, empty cabinets, and even canned stuff. Turning to his left, he spotted a note taped to the fridge. He began to examine it and noticed one word stood out from the rest of the note.

The Marsh House.

_'Hmm... The Marsh House.' _he hummed out loud, trying to think what kind of area-code that place was before it suddenly hit him. _'That's a Savannah area-code. But that's the type that you'd leave a baby-sitter.'_... he hoped that the blood was connected to the babysitter or the kid who was in here.

Walking into the living room, he couldn't help but still be in awe-shocked horror of what had become of this cozy little home. "Furniture everywhere... blood everywhere... Jesus..." he summed the situation up with a shake of his head. He just hoped that the kid was alright and was with a neighbor or relative or someone that could look after them.

It was then that Lee heard a _'BEEP!'_ like noise. He blinked in confusion and looked around, as a second beep echoed throughout the house. _'Where's that beeping coming?' _he thought confused, it sounded like some sort of answering machine.

He turned around and found a small desktop with an answering machine on it. _'Maybe there's something on there.' _he thought, desperate for answers. He reached down and hit the message button and it beeped loudly.

**_"Three new_ _messages._**_**" **_the emotionless voice of the speaker spoke. _**"Message one. Left at five-forty-three**_** p.m."**. He hoped that these were good messages and not any terrible ones. His thoughts were then broken, when a woman's voice came on the phone.

_**"Hey, Sandra, this is Diana. We're still in Savannah. Ed had a little 'incident' with some crazy guy near the hotel, so we had to get him back to the ER and have it checked**** out." **_Lee probably had a good feeling who that 'crazy guy' this Diana woman spoke of. _**"Anyway, he's not feeling well enough to drive back tonight, so we're be staying for an extra day. Thanks so much for looking after Clementine, and I promise we'll be back in time before your spring break!".**_

So the little girl did live in this house. At least he was glad to know that she was still alive and that this Sandra person was probably looking after her... he hoped.

_**"Message two. Left at eleven-nine-teen p.m." **_the answering machine's voice announced and Lee's attention was re-focused back onto the machine. What he heard was not pleasant.

_**"Oh my God,** **finally!"**_** _"I don't know if you've tried to reach us; all the calls are getting dropped._** _**They're not letting us leave and aren't telling us anything about Atlanta. Please, please, just leave the city and take Clementine with you back to Marietta. I've got to get back to the hospital. Please, let me know that you're**_** safe."** The second message then ended with Lee feeling uncomfortably and just hoped that the last message could bring some good news.

_**"Message three. Left at six-fifty-one a.m.".**_

But what he heard was probably one of the most terrifying things he heard in his life.

_**"Clementine,**** baby?"** _Diana's shaky sobs could be heard, as well as the sounds of pounding on a glass car and a voice yelling for her to get out of the car. He didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing. _**"If you can hear this, call the police. That's 9-1-1."** _it was then that Lee heard the familiar growl of one of the undead. _**"We love you... we love you... we love y-AHHH!" **_the pain-filled screams of Diana then flooded the message, as he could hear the sound of flesh being torn apart and the roar on the engine and tires screeching.

_'She must have the car running and floored the accelerator by accident, when whatever it was bit her.' _Lee realized, as the message closed out with the sounds of a car crashing and worse of all, gunshots that sounded like they came from an assault rifle. He then looked and saw, right next to the answering machine, was a photograph of the little girl and her parents.

He stared at it with sadness in his eyes. How would she react if she heard these messages. Setting the picture down, he looked at the machine with a pained look in his eyes and with a few moments of hesitation, he deleted the messages from the phone. If he ever met the babysitter, he'll tell her about what happen to the parents.

_**"Daddy?" **_he froze at the static-like whisper that sounded eerily like a little girl. He took the walkie-talkie out of his pocket and brought it up to his face and hit the button on the side, thus bringing him into contact with the little girl.

Walking towards the door, he whispered in a voice like hers. "...Hello?".

_**"You need to be quiet" **_the voice told him softly, but forcefully enough for him to blink in surprise of the girl's maturity. Regaining his composure, he walked back into the living room. "Are you okay?" he automatically asked her.

_**"I'm ok. They tried to get me. But I'm hiding until my parents come**** home." **_shaking his hand of the horrible noises of the messages, he remembered not to tell the little girl until they find the babysitter.

"What's your name?" Lee inquired, hoping to start off some kind of conversation and was relieved that he succeeded. _**"I'm Clementine. This is my house."**_she spoke, putting some emphasize on 'my house'.

He smiled grimly, at least it was a start. "Hi, Clementine, I'm Lee... Where are your parents?" he asked, although he knew, he wanted to see if she knew where they were or if she knew what happened to them.

_**"They took a trip and left me with Sandra. They're in Savannah, I think. Where the boats**_** are."** came Clementine's response, sounding force as if she was thinking about where they were. Then again, the kid couldn't be more than seven or eight years old.

He walked into the kitchen, avoiding the blood-splattered floor and walked over to the kitchen window. "Are you safe?" he asked, wanting to know where she was and who she was with.

_**"I'm outside in my treehouse. They can't get in."**_she said, making him visibly relaxed. So she was in the treehouse outside. "That's smart." he praised, nodding his head and he could feel her blush in embarrassment over the walkie-talkie.

He then saw the door to the treehouse crack open slightly. _**"See." **_she asked him,_** "Can you see me? I can see you through the**_** window.".** Indeed he could see the small child with the ball cap and long curly hair through the window peeking at him shyly.

He smiled at her and waved at her through the window. Instead of having her either wave at him or come down from the treehouse, she shrieked with fear and ducked back inside the small treehouse. Confused, at why she did that, he realized why when he heard the sounds of snarling hunger from behind him.

Instantly, he spun around and grabbed hold of the rotting hands of the red-head woman, who was probably this Sandra who was looking after Clementine, try to bit his neck with yellow teeth and its milky-white eyes boring holes into his soul.

Conjuring up as much strength as he could, he slowly began to push the undead creature back until it fell backwards and hit its head on the oven behind it. Lee began to run out, but he failed to notice the blood-splattered floor again and fell, this time hitting his head on the counter, making his entire vision blurry.

Despite his vision blurred, he could still make out the figure of Sandra slowly beginning to crawl forward to devour his flesh. He reacted quickly and kicked it backwards with his foot, sending it flying back into the oven and smash through the oven's glass and even then, it still kept coming.

Lee pulled himself up with the help of the counter above him and turned around to run away, when Sandra's hand grasped his foot and pulled him back onto the floor. Spinning over onto his back, he saw that the undead Sandra was closer than ever and instantly clocked it right in the jaw, knocking it back slightly.

He began to crawl backwards slowly, not noticing the small figure from behind him open the glass door with an object grasped tightly in her hands. Sandra crawled onto the top of Lee and instantly tried to claw open his face. He managed to gather enough the strength to push it back onto the floor and began to kick her face instantly, when he suddenly noticed Clementine.

"Here!" she stuttered, the hammer shaking frantically in her hands. Lee instantly took from her hands and immediately hit her face with it, knocking her beside of him. Now it was time to fight back.

Putting his knee on her stomach, he began to bash the creature's head once, small specks of blood appearing from behind her head and onto the floor. He hit her again, causing the blood to grow bigger and have some blood trickle down its face. A third time, he hit it and small drops of blood appeared on its clothing, he wasn't sure if it was dead, so he hit it one last time. With a loud yell, the hammer caved into her head and through her skull, impacting with her brain and making it explode with black gunks of its brains flying onto his clothes and face.

Jerking the hammer out with some difficulty, he examined his work and saw what he'd done. A large hole was carved into her head and one of its eyes and popped out of its skull, as a pool of blackish blood began to appear from behind its head.

Panting heavily from exhaustion and the smell, he breathed heavily. "Man..." he muttered, putting his hands on his knees once he stood up, hunched over with bile threatening to come out, which thankfully it didn't.

It was then that he noticed the one who had came to rescue. "Hi there." Lee greeted her rather awkwardly, though in her defense, he did kill the undead version of her babysitter.

Taking a few steps back from the growing pool of blood, she looked up at the tall figure of Lee. "Did you kill it?" she whispered with fear lacing in her tone that made Lee's heart ache with guilt.

"I think something else did. Before me, I think." he told her truthfully, she was already dead, when he walked into the house. Clementine nodded at his answer in agreement. "I heard her screams two nights ago. Maybe one of the monsters got here" she whispered, remembering the pain-filled screams of Sandra from her treehouse.

His eyes widen in shock, so that's why she didn't find out about Diana and Ed. "Two nights ago? Yeah, that's probably what happened." he nodded, looking down at the floor, before looking at the little girl with sympathetic eyes.

"You've been all by yourself through this?" he asked her in bewilderment, she must have been one brave little girl. Clementine, once again, nodded to his answer.

"Yeah, I want my parents to come home now.".

Lee flinched, which Clementine didn't notice, as he remembered Diana's final words and the blood-curling scream before the crash and the gunfire started. "I think that might be a little while, you know?" he told her carefully, making sure that she wouldn't start bawling in the middle of the room.

"Oh." she muttered depressingly and Lee had to do something. He couldn't just leave her here to get torn apart by those... _walkers_, so to be speak. He crouched forward to her and made a decision that would effect both of their lives forever.

"Look, I don't know what happened." he told her gently, "But I'll look after you until then." Clementine looked hesitant for a moment, before nodding her head and looked down on the floor.

"What should we do, now?" she finally asked, looking back up at Lee.

She did make a good point, they had either two options to go with. Either they could look for help, before it gets dark. Or they could get out of here before the sun goes down. After a long moment of hard thinking and tense silence, Lee declared to her.

"We need to find help before it gets dark".

The eight-year-old nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, it's not safe at night." she rubbed her arms, remembering the dozens upon dozens of walkers that walked into her backyard and how she cried herself to sleep, praying that she wouldn't get eaten.

Standing up, Lee began to walk towards the door, when he felt a tiny hand interlock with his masculine ones. He looked down to see Clementine's innocent golden eyes giving him a puppy dog look and Lee couldn't help but melt at the innocence that shined inside her eyes. He only wish he had a daughter himself.

Shaking himself from those thoughts, he looked down at the child and said, "Let's go. Stay close to me.".

And with that a new adventure had begun... as well as the beginning of a stranger and a little girl relationship to a father-daughter type. And to think all of this happened, because of some **Adventures in Babysitting.**


	4. In Your Care

The Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone Bye...

Chapter 3: In Your Care

* * *

><p>Even in a sunset, the bright rays of the evening sun were strong enough for Lee to shield his eyes from blindness. He felt Clem's hand release the grip that it had on his hand from behind him.<p>

He looked up to the sky and noticed that the color had grown a bit darker than before. He must have lost track of how long he was there. Though then again, when you're being attacked by a supernatural creature of the undead, that tends to happen a bit.

He then turned to see Clementine staring sadly at the corpse of her former babysitter and friend, before she closed her eyes and shut the glass door behind her. She turned around and looked back at Lee, waiting to see what he would do.

Nodding towards her, he began to limp across the porch while Clementine merely jogged and made her way down the stairs with Lee halfway behind her. He had to admit, despite her young age, she was rather quick.

Making his way down the stairs to find Clementine waiting for him, the duo began walking down the driveway, before they froze at what they saw in the street of the neighborhood.

Two man were in front of the gate trying to push a green convertible that was stuck in front of, what Lee assumed, was one of the two men's truck.

"Maaan..." he heard a voice younger than his in what he assumed were his late teens groaned in annoyance, as the two stood up with sweat trickling down their heads and wiping the grease of their heads.

"I ain't never gettin' home to mama at this rate." the pudgier man drawled out to his companion with his voice thick with a Southern accent, showing that he was born and raised here in Georgia.

"This sucks." the teen cursed under his breath, as he turned to his friend and raised an eyebrow at the pudgy man's face that looked depressed. Sensing this, the man turned to his friend with a rather sheepish expression on his face.

"It's hot dish night." he said like it was the most important thing in the world, making the teen roll his eyes in good nature and a teasing smirk appear on his face, before they went back to pushing the tractor.

_'Finally, some help.' _Lee thought, relief coursing through his veins. He began to walk towards the pair, when he suddenly stopped when he released that the little girl he was looking after wasn't behind him.

He knelt down to her level. "What's the matter?" he questioned lowly, so that the two in front of them couldn't hear their conversation.

Clementine rubbed her arm nervously, biting her lower lip. "Should I stay?" she whispered, glancing down at the concrete driveway, making Lee blink in surprise.

"What?".

"I don't want to sleep in the treehouse tonight, but I don't know if I should leave. What if my parents come home?" the question was full of so much scared innocence that it made Lee's heart ace painly. Lee closed his eyes to give a respond, before he snapped his head back up to look at the little girl.

"I won't leave you alone." he reassured the girl gently, making Clementine smile with happiness for the first time ever since he met her.

"Let's go somewhere close that's safe, ok?" Clementine told him firmly with her face full of cute determination that made Lee chuckle under his breath.

"That's a good idea." and with that, Lee stood up and the duo began to approach the two men across the street. Clementine pushed open the gate, which creaked so loudly that made Lee wonder how they didn't hear them come through, and the two began to approach them.

"Hey man!" Lee called out to them, making them both flinch and spin around with impressive speed that made even Lee have to blink twice. "HOLY SHIT! DON'T EAT US!" the chubby man yelled out in fear, holding his hands out to either protect himself or to push him away if he came any closer.

"We're not going to hurt you." Lee tried to ease the two people's fear. Up close, he got a better look at their appearance. The older one had a greasy brown mullet that wore a dirty t-shirt with dirty blue jeans and brown boots to match with them, while his companion had short, black spiky hair and wore a green camouflage jumpsuit with black and white sneakers. They both look like to be in late teens and early twenties.

The one with the jumpsuit sighed in relief. "Phew, thought for a second you and the little one were BOTH going to give us the chomp." he explained, putting emphasis on the word 'Both'.

Though Lee was more curious to know why they were here and just what was going what was going on and not to mention what this chomp meant, they came to them for one reason only.

"We need help." he said seriously, his eyes not betraying any emotion that was on his face. The guy in the jumpsuit nodded at him in understanding.

"Are you guys trying to get out of here?" he questioned the pair before him and his friend. "Because you should be. Those things are all over the damn place. I haven't seen anything as gnarly as this neighborhood since downtown Atlanta, fifteen miles back." he gestured toward the city that stood behind him and Lee didn't need to turn his head to know that the columns of smoke were still there and was growing bigger as more time went on.

"I'm Shawn, Shawn Greene." the one known as Shawn finally introduced himself towards them, although the chubby man still hasn't told them his name yet.

"Lee. This is Clementine." he introduced himself and the shy girl that was currently hiding behind his leg. The chubby man smiled and knelt down to Clementine's level. "I'm Chet." he waved a hand to Clementine in good manner, making the little girl smile shyly.

"We shouldn't be out in the open like this." Shawn's voice cut through the silence, reminding all of the threat of the undead still lurking about in this neighborhood and the city. "How about you help us clear the way and we'll take you down to my family's farm. It should be safer there." Shawn offered them, which finally made Lee's tension relax, though he had to tell them about who he really was.

"I'm not her dad, I'm..." he paused, struggling to find some kind of answer before blurting out. "...her neighbor. I'm looking after her until her parents come back." Lee told him, he didn't like lying to the kind teen in front of him and he could feel Clementine's questioning gaze from behind him.

Shawn nodded, at least he was someone that didn't kidnap the little girl. "Let's get going. Staying put for too long is a mistake." he said seriously and Lee nodded in agreement, after what he saw here, he didn't need to be told twice.

He looked down to Clementine behind him. "What do you want do?" he asked the little girl, hoping that she wasn't mad at him for lying to Shawn.

Clementine shook her head back and forth in hesitation, debating on what she should do. "I..." she paused, simply gazing at her home to find some kind of answer. But that was all broken when Chet announced, terrified.

"Them monsters comin'! WE GOTTA GO!" he whispered loudly, hoping not to attract the monsters attention, though that didn't stop the creatures from moaning loudly and began limping towards their direction.

Shawn then darted to the green car blocking their path. "Lee, quick! Let's go!" he called out to the man for help, as Lee instantly darted towards the car and began to push the car back, thanks to Lee's strength.

They pushed twice and more forcefully, as they heard the moaning and snarling for hunger start to grow louder and more frequently. Lee then saw Clem pop out from behind them and began to help the two, though despite her weak arms, Lee couldn't help but be impressed of how determined she was.

Once there was enough room, Lee, Clem and Shawn instantly ran back to the truck with the pair trying to go for the back of the pickup, when they saw that Chet had already took most of the back up.

"Get in!" Shawn's voice inside the pickup said, as Lee and Clementine opened the door and basically jumped inside the truck.

Once they got in, Shawn spared no hesitation in putting the truck in drive and flooring the gas pedal, making the tires screech loudly, before it started to move and went as fast as it could. It went so fast that it actually dented its side because of the green car, but it didn't stop them from making their getaway from the chaotic neighborhood.

"Were any of those guys neighbors of yours?" Shawn joked weakly, though judging from Clementine's sad look, he could say that they were hers, as she gazed sadly at a female creature roaring at the pickup.

They knocked down a few roadblocks before making a sharp right, finally leaving the hellish nightmare they escaped from behind for good.

* * *

><p>The full-moon rose into the sky, glowing so bright that it practically lit up the entire night sky so much that you could even see the stars from behind the dark clouds that hovered over the earth.<p>

The sound of Shawn's pickup could be heard, as the passengers inside drove down the dirt road to his family's farm. The silence in the car was a comfortable one, despite the situation that happened just two hours ago. Lee was slightly surprised to see that Clementine was still up, though the adrenaline would still be inside of her after the incident with Sandra.

They pass so many cornfields that Lee started to actually count how many that they had past, he made it to 13, before they made a right turn and began to drive down a rather rocky road, before came to a stop at the sight of a house.

It was just a simple two-story house with a chimney and a few windows, including one on the top of the house that made Lee guess was the attic or the master's bedroom. It seemed relatively cozy in that sort of countryside feeling. Though what caught his eye the most was what was beside of the farmhouse itself.

It was a large red barn and Lee couldn't help, but be surprised of how large it was. Hell, it looked like the size of the house itself, so he wondered what could be stored inside of it.

Shawn parked the truck and they all began to step out of the vehicle. Lee could smell the familiar smell of manure from the field trips that he took as a kid to local farms around Macon. Even now, he still remembered how much he enjoyed playing around in the farm with his friends, as the though made him smile before it turned into a frown as he hoped that they were all okay.

"Hey, Shawn..." Chet's voice interrupted his thoughts, "I'm a' run on home. My mama's going to be in a snit." he told his friend, making his friend nod in understanding.

"No sweat, man. I'll catch you tomorrow and we'll go see about how bad that other town a few miles from Fayetteville." he told his friend, reminding him about that one town about 30 miles from the town that they resided nearby them.

Chet nodded in agreement, before he turned to look at Lee. "It was nice to meet ya both." he said, before he spun on his heel and left for his home, leaving Lee and Clementine alone with Shawn.

Not long after he left, they heard the door to the farmhouse open from behind him and a man in his late 50s' to early 60s' exited from the house, wearing a green zip-up John Deere vest, blue jeans, fancy brown shoes and had a white beard to finish of the appearance of a farmer in the south. His expression turned to one of relief, once he saw Shawn.

"Thank God, you're okay." he proclaimed, his deep, grizzly voice expressing his happiness upon seeing his son. Stepping of the porch and into the yard, the son threw his arms around his father in relief, as did the latter did to the former.

"I was worried that it'd be bad here, too." Shawn admitted to the old man, who simply shrugged naturally. "Been quiet as usual in the past couple of days. Ol' Breckon down the way thinks that his mare's gone lame but that ain't nothing new." the old man explained, as if things were the same like any other day.

Apparently, he hasn't seen Atlanta yet.

"I wouldn't have made it back without Chet." Shawn said, making his father smile. "Well, I'm glad you took him with you then." he said, knowing that it was the right decision for his son to take his friend with him to the city.

It was that time when he noticed Lee and Clementine approached and placed his hands on his hips. "You've brought a couple of guests." he said, though Lee thought his tone had changed slightly when he noticed them.

"Your boy's a lifesaver." Lee praised the teen, who rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

The old man's expression didn't change, as he nodded in agreement. "Glad he could have been of help to somebody." he said, turning his head to look at Clementine. "So it's just you and your daughter then." he assumed, coming to his own conclusion that they were related to each other.

"Oh, not his daughter, he was her neighbor." Shawn interrupted, telling his dad what Lee had told him earlier. The old man's face changed to one of suspicion, as he knelt down the child's height.

"Honey, do you know this man?" he asked gently, but Lee had detected the tone of suspicion underneath his honest voice. For a moment, Clementine didn't respond, as if trying to think what she would say and her answer was something that Lee didn't suspect.

"Yes.".

The old man studied her expression, before nodding slowly and standing back up. "Ok, then." he then looked down at Lee's injured leg from the car accident. "Well, looks like you hurt your leg pretty bad there." he said, raising an eyebrow of how badly his leg was cut.

Lee nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's not doing so good" come to think of it, it was slightly burning stronger than it was back at the house.

Hershel simply studied the wound for a moment, before he nodded. "I can help you out." he turned to look at his son. "Shawn, run on inside and check on your sister. You, take a seat up on the porch and I'll go see what I have."

And with that, the father and his son went inside the house for different reasons, while Lee took a seat on the chair on the porch, while Clementine just stood shyly at the porch steps, rubbing her arms nervously like back at the house.

Hershel then came out on the porch and stopped to smile at Clementine a little bit, before walking towards his patient. "Let's have a look." he said, bending down to examine the wound and frowned. "Yeah, this is swollen to hell.".

"Could be worse." he shrugged, trying to ignore the burning pain in his leg. Hershel nodded, "That's what it sounds like. Seems like things got awful bad in the cities." he said, remembering what Shawn explained to him. "What'd you say your name was?" he asked him, not knowing what his patient's name is.

"It's Lee." he told the man, sensing a trusting feeling from the kind old man.

"Nice to meet you, Lee. I'm Hershel Greene." he introduced himself to Lee. He then wrapped a bandage around the wound, making Lee flinch with pain. "How'd this happen?" he questioned Lee, without looking up from his work.

"Car accident." Lee automatically said, cursing himself in his thoughts for speaking too fast.

Hershel seemed to make note of what the man said. "That so?" he questioned, as Lee began to think that this conversation may not go so well as he thought it would. "Where were you headed? Before the car accident?" he asked.

"Home." Lee replied, a faraway look in his eye, as he remembered the days of when he used to help out at his family's drugstore before he became a professor at Athens.

Hershel raised an eyebrow. "Where's home?".

"I grew up in Macon. We hit a guy, one of those things you've been hearing about, on the road." Lee rambled on to the man, not noticing that he said 'we'. Though Hershel did.

"Who were you with, the girl?" Lee paused to think of a response to the question, either he would tell him that he was with a police officer or he could lie again and say nobody, which would only create more lies on his part.

Finally, he answered the farmer. "I was with a police officer. He was giving me a ride." Lee said, hoping that Hershel wouldn't do something bad to him, but the man seemingly nodded in satisfaction, possibly the first time all night.

"Awful nice of him." Hershel said, making Lee shrug. That part of what he said was actually true. "I'm an awful nice guy." he replied, happy that Hershel finally believed him for once.

"House is full up with mine. We've got another displaced family of three sleeping in the barn. You and your daughter are welcome to rest there, when we're done here." Hershel said, not noticing that he called Clementine Lee's daughter.

He turned around to speak to said-child. "I didn't catch your name, darlin'." he told the child truthfully and Lee could hear the mixture of curiosity and slight protection in his voice.

She looked away from the older man, not meeting his gaze. "Clem...Clementine." she stuttered her whisper, turning back to face the two before her to see Hershel giving her a sympathetic look.

"Can't imagine what you've been through, Clementine." Hershel said softly, concern in his voice for the little girl who stayed locked in a treehouse for two days.

"I'm looking after her until we find her parents." he explained, trying his hardest not to remember the bloodcurling scream of Diana before her possible death. He then heard footsteps and saw Shawn walk back onto the porch, a serious expression on his face.

"Hey dad, so I'm thinking, first thing tomorrow, we gotta reinforce the fence around the farm." he expressed his thoughts to the veterinarian, events of whatever happened to him in Atlanta before he met Lee haunting his thoughts.

Hershel didn't look that convinced. "That doesn't seem necessary." he shrugged off Shawn's idea, which made Lee look at the man in shock. Had he been in Atlanta, he would have thought otherwise.

Shawn looked at his dad in the same way as well. "I don't know what you saw on TV, or heard on the radio, but there's some serious..." he said angrily, before he paused and glanced behind him, remembering the child that was present and lowered his voice to a whisper, "SHIT hitting the fan." despite his attempts, Clementine still heard the teen and gained a shocked look on her face at the swear that he said.

Had the situation not been so serious, Lee would have laughed at the look on Clem's face.

Shawn shook his head. "I don't think anyone knows how big it is yet." he said grimly and Lee had to agreed, if any of those things got to the town nearby, those people may not survive this situation.

"Your son's right. You're going to want to fortify this place." Lee nodded in agreement, gaining an approving look from the teen behind Hershel, who simply frowned.

"Stuff like that doesn't happen around here, Shawn." he said, once again, trying to shrug off his son's warnings. His son clenched his jaw in anger at his father's stubbornness.

"Dad, I'm serious. Lee, come on, tell him what you saw out there, man." he begged the man, hoping that he would share the same thoughts that he did and Lee did.

"I saw a cop come back from the dead." he said, slightly flinching from the memory of blowing the man's head off, even if he was a crawling corpse looking to consume his flesh.

Hershel finally gave in. 'Well, do what you think we should." he sighed, "We've got plenty of chores to do as it is." he grumbled that last part in annoyance and Shawn looked the same, making Lee smile as he saw the resemblance between the father and his son.

"Lee and those folks in the barn can help out in the morning. We gotta do it, really." Shawn said, even though his father agreed, he can't pushing him on and on to build a fence.

"I already said ok." Hershel interrupted his son, hoping to stop him from continuing on with him building the fence, he just got out of his grey hair phase and he sure as hell didn't want to have anymore. God knows he didn't need anymore teasing from the twins.

Shawn went back inside, as Hershel finished wrapping up the leg. "Well, I'm all done here. It should start to feel better tomorrow." he smiled at Lee, who merely glanced at his bandaged leg.

"Thanks." Lee nodded his gratitude to the older male in front of him, who stood up.

"If your leg gets hot or the swelling goes down; you're probably dealing with an infection." Hershel gave his diagnosis of the wound to Lee, who gained a look of fear on his face.

"What do we do then?" he asked worriedly.

Hershel gained a dark smirk. "We'll probably just have to shoot you." he said coldly, pointing a finger at Lee, who gained a terrified look on his face like Clementine's. Though that was broken when Hershel only laughed at his face.

"We'll clean it, re-dress it and you'll be fine." Hershel reassured the man, whose expression turned back to one of relief before it turned into one of annoyance.

"Ok, that'd be preferable." he replied to the man, annoyance in his voice. He didn't find that joke rather funny.

Hershel gestured his head toward his massive barn. "There's blankets and such in the barn. We'll be seeing you bright and early." he warned Lee of what time they'll be waking up and Lee wasn't a big fan of the morning, "Come tomorrow, which way you think you're heading?" he asked the man, curious to know his destination.

"Towards Macon, I suppose." Lee replied, he didn't know where Clementine's other relatives were and he thought that he might stop by his hometown to see if his folks and brother were alright.

Hershel simply nodded, before turning around to turn in for the night, only stopping briefly to smile at Clementine kindly, before heading inside the house. Lee rose an eyebrow at the gesture.

"All right then." he said awkwardly, not sure what to think of the old man. All that mattered to him was getting a good night's rest and he didn't mattered where it would be.

Besides, how bad could sleeping in a barn be?

* * *

><p>...It sucks.<p>

Lee didn't know what was worse, sleeping in a mattress to small for him, the smell of shit in the barn or the pieces of hay sticking to his clothing. Either way, if he was forced between sleeping in a closet or a barn, he probably go with the barn.

He shifted uncomfortably, turning his head to see Clementine was still awake, her nose wrinkled up in disgust, it seems that she too noticed the smell of the barn.

"It smells like..." she trailed off, her face in confusion for an answer. Lee couldn't help, but raise an eyebrow at her. He might as well tell the little girl what it was.

"Shit." he bluntly stated, closing his eyes, only to open them hearing Clem's gasp and turn his head to blink in surprise of seeing her giving him a stern glare like a parent gives to a child.

"I'm sorry;" he instantly apologized, feeling uncomfortable by the glare, "I shouldn't have said that." he just hope that she would just stop giving him that stare.

"That was a swear." Clementine scolded the man, who felt rather awkward right now. Clementine put her head back on the pillow, as did Lee who simply stared at the ceiling.

The silence throughout the night was a really unknown one. Was it a scared one? Happy? Awkward, maybe? But Lee's thoughts were broken off when he heard Clementine tell him.

"I miss my mom and dad.".

The sadness in her voice made Lee's heart break in two, as he gazed sadly at the child. Despite all that he saw her do today of going through the phases of bravery and shyness, he finally saw what she really was.

She was scared.

Like a child who wanted their parents to come home to scare away the boogeyman hiding under the bed. Though Lee didn't have the heart to tell her the truth of her parents. So he simply responded with.

"I bet, Clem".

"How far is Savannah?" she asked with an innocent voice, that made the high pitch of her voice stand out.

Lee frowned. "Pretty far." he replied back to the child.

"Oh. Ok." she yawned, closing her eyes and finally going to sleep, the adrenaline gone from her entire being. Lee smiled at her before closing his eyes, he too was tired and he needed a little shut-eye before the painful rays of the sun hit him full-force in the morning.

* * *

><p><em>"I love you, baby." a woman's voice echoed throughout his dreams, giving him a kiss after their first real date.<em>

_Her soft, melodic laughter becoming a haunting echo throughout his mind that seemed to mock him even in the darkest corners of his mind._

_The smashing sound of glass could be heard with venomous threats being exchanged between the two figures over the same thing, the woman._

_A shriek of the woman he loved that had betrayed him for this, this... bastard. Though what he didn't know was that beyond the pain, beyond the anger and heartbreak of his being that if he had paid attention to her shriek, he would've froze of what kind of tone she used._

_Fear._

* * *

><p>Lee awoke with a deep gasp with his eyes nearly bulging out of his head, cold sweat dripping down his face with full force that it made his wipe his forehead clean of it. He took several deep breaths, before lying back down.<p>

He paused to take a look at Clementine who slept without a snore, her soft breaths echoing throughout the barn. He smiled at the cute sight in front of him, before he rubbed his hand through his head. He tried to have a child with his ex before he found out about her... work, while he was teaching others at the university.

He finally closed his eyes, letting the Sandman throw his sleeping dust onto his weary fatigue. Despite all that he had went through ever since the incident, who would've thought that he would have ended up in a barn in a small town near Atlanta with a child that he was looking out for and protecting her from the threat of the undead.

He smiled slightly. He finally realized why he survived that car crash. It was as if it was some miracle that guided him to that house to save this child from the threat of becoming one of them.

His final thoughts before he went to sleep was that he now realized that this little girl was now **In His Care...** and he'd be damned if he let anything happen to her as he kept breathing.


End file.
